One of the toughest parts of owning and managing a business is finding and keeping reliable clients. For many business owners and professionals, utilizing customer relationship management software (or CRM, for short) is an essential part of marketing and building customer databases. At Home Improvement Leads, we are committed to helping both homeowners and building professionals find ways to connect, interact, and develop positive relationships. We’ve come up with a few ways to help people find ideal customer profiles. In our case we’re assisting contractors, but these guidelines could help anyone find their ideal customer.
What is an ideal customer profile?
An ideal customer profile, or ICP as it is known in the marketing world, is simply the intended audience or client base for a business. For any business or corporation, regardless of size, a well-thought-out ICP can help professionals target the right consumers for their particular expertise. In a perfect world, an ideal customer is one who will use your services on a regular and consistent basis, have needs that only you and your business can fill, and will recommend your services to others. While this seems a straightforward enough definition, finding your ICP can be a difficult process if you don’t know where to begin. Below are three main questions you need to ask yourself in order to create and maintain an effective ICP.
Who is your customer?
The first thing you need to determine when creating your ICP is your target client base. Your customer’s demographics—including age range, budget, home type, and location—will help to narrow down your marketing range, while finding out the needs of your clients will further help to define your ICP. While you may end up taking on clients with a variety of needs, budgets, and other priorities, this is an important first step that will get you thinking about your customer in a tangible way.
What is the best way to get in touch?
After you’ve determined your target audience, the next step in finding and managing your ICP is getting started with marketing. Find out how clients like yours prefer to stay in touch—via print ads, social media, websites, blogs, and local events, for example—and go from there. For example in our industry many clients seeking contractors will only work with professionals who have a strong and up-to-date online presence, so we recommend making this a priority for your business. However, word of mouth and personal interaction are still some of the best ways to build relationships, so don’t forget to put yourself out there in the early stages of selling your business.
How can you pitch your services to your customer?
Knowing how to reach your clients is important, but it means nothing for you and your ICP if you don’t know what to say. Keeping up to date with your qualifications, experience, and customer reviews will help potential clients see what kind of work you produce. If you offer specialized services, mentioning unique qualifications is a great way to find customers who will provide you with a positive and reciprocal relationship. Finally, offering special discounts and occasional perks across your social media platforms will keep clients engaged over time and returning to you for future projects.
Once you have completed these steps, you will have found your ideal customer profile. The only thing left for you to do now is to get some business and get to work!
Comments